Title: Prove It
Genres: Friendship, Humor, Romance, Angst
Rating: M
Summary: Kagome’s tired of her friends insisting she dump her “rough, jealous boyfriend” and go for boring old Hojo, so she claims that she has a new boyfriend. What’ll happen when Sesshoumaru gets involved in her quest for evidence?
Updates: I am writing this because I feel like it, not because you yell at me to update. I don’t mind reviews that say “Please update fast/soon/etc.!” Do note, however, that they really have no effect on me.
-oOo-
“And I was just like, ‘You are talking to me, right?’ and then he was all like, ‘Who else would I be talking to?’”
“That is so sexy!”
“I know right!”
Kagome sunk lower in the booth, sipping from her milkshake and hoping Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi would be too engrossed in their conversation to bother her. Before she’d started travelling through the well to the Sengoku Jidai, she’d been a part of these conversations, too. Hair, makeup, boys… They had all been so huge, so important. Now, she couldn’t help but think of these things as superficial.
Not to mention, she was seriously out of the loop. That tended to happen since she was barely around anymore. Two years of skipping back and forth between the two worlds she now called home had taken a number on her social life. The hunt for the Shikon no Tama had been the beginning of the end when it came to anything future-related. With every trip to the Sengoku Jidai, she grew farther and farther apart from her friends. She was always falling further behind on their lives; it was as if she barely knew these people in the future anymore.
She paused in her thoughts. “The future.” She’d been spending so much time in the past she had grown to think of that as the present and this, her time, as the future. How could that be? This was her home. This was where her mother, brother, and grandfather lived. This was where she was born and raised, so why did it feel so… surreal? Almost like an illusion.
It seems, Kagome Higurashi, that you have become a thing of the past, she thought ruefully, a smile playing at her lips as she took another sip of milkshake.
“Higurashi-san!”
She looked up and caught sight of Hojo waving at her enthusiastically from the door to the café. Her friends’ conversation stopped abruptly, Yuka and Eri greeting the approaching boy and Ayumi raising a mischievous brow at Kagome, who reluctantly pulled herself out of her crouched position and scooted over, making room for Hojo on the booth next to her.
“Hey, Hojo-kun!” she said, forcing a bright smile to her face.
His eyes lit up when he saw her making room for him and he immediately slid in to sit next to her (a little closer than was necessary). “Higurashi-san, how’s your hip?”
“Erm, my hip?” she said intelligently.
“Of course! Your grandfather said you couldn’t come to school for the past few weeks because you fell down the shrine stairs and broke your hip,” he said brightly. “In fact,” he went on, picking up a brown paper pack he’d brought with him and not noticing the way her smile twitched slightly, “I bought you an Icy Hot so if it ever hurts it won’t be so bad!”
She laughed nervously, accepting the gift he thrust at her. “Thanks, Hojo-kun, this really means a lot to me.” Maybe I can give it to Shippou the next time Inuyasha hits him over the head or something. After I kill my grandpa, that is.
The boy grinned. “No problem, Higurashi-san. Oh, and by the way,” he said, suddenly flushing slightly, “Do you want to go catch a movie this Saturday? I guess you’d already had your accident last time so you couldn’t come…”
“Oh, er, alright,” she said. “I’ll call you, okay?”
“Okay!” he said, standing up. “I have to go. See ya!”
“See ya, Hojo-kun.”
“Bye!”
“Bye.”
Silence. Kagome avoided her friends’ piercing looks, opting instead to roll up the paper bag, stuff it into her backpack, and return to her milkshake. Please don’t start, please don’t start, please don’t start…
“Kagome-chan, you know you should really ditch that rough, jealous boyfriend of yours and go for Hojo-kun,” said Ayumi.
Wishful thinking. Totally just wishful thinking.
“Yeah, Kagome-chan, what gives?” said Eri. “Didn’t you say he’s cheating on you anyway?”
“Why don’t you just break up with him and be done with it?” insisted Yuri.
“I really don’t get you, Kagome-chan.” Ayumi shook her head sadly. “You’re like the beaten wives from those tearjerker movies.”
“Wait, what? I am not a beaten—!”
“You are so a beaten wife,” Yuri cut in.
“Yeah! He cheats on you with that Kikyou chick and you just stand around and let it happen!” said Eri, her voice rising. “If you ask me, those are the usual symptoms of—read my lips—A. Beaten. Wife.”
“I don’t just stand around and let it happen,” Kagome said. “I’m already over him! Inuyasha is old news. How many times do I have to tell you that?”
Ayumi rolled her eyes. “That is such a lie. If you were really over that piece of crap boyfriend of yours, you’d have no problem going out with Hojo-kun, and how many times have you stood him up now?”
“The poor guy’s going to get sick from waiting out in the cold so many times!” Eri said.
“Oh, that is not true,” Kagome said, although she did feel a bit guilty. She really didn’t mean to stand him up all those times. It just sort of… happened. Life happened. Inuyasha happened. Shikon-related things happened.
“Ha! I think she’s just saying that she’s over him because she’s a beaten wife and she doesn’t want to face the facts!” said Yuka.
“Yeah.”
“Yeah!”
“Give it a rest, you guys!”
“We’ll ‘give it a rest’ when you”—Yuka jabbed a finger at her—“stop being so whiny and go out with Hojo-kun. I know in the beginning it might be a bit awkward, but that’s normal! Just wing it, y’know?”
“Yeah!”
“Yeah!”
“No! I don’t even like him like that,” said Kagome desperately. “Please, just stop. I really am over Inuyasha.”
“Then why don’t you want to go out with Hojo-kun?” asked Ayumi. “He’s so nice and handsome. You’d be perfect together.”
Kagome stuck out her tongue. “Too perfect. He’s so boring!”
“Excuses, excuses,” said Eri.
“Come on, Kagome-chan, just break up with the idiot already!” said Yuka.
“I told you, I did.”
“Then go out with Hojo-kun!”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“Why are you so interested in my love life?”
“Because you’re our friend, and we don’t want you going out with some jackass who’s cheating on you!”
“I’m pretty sure I already said that we’re over!”
“Then go. Out. With. Hojo-kun!”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“No!”
“Yes!”
“No! I don’t want to go out with Hojo-kun!”
“What’s wrong with you?!”
“There’s nothing wrong with me!”
“Then why don’t you want to go out with him?”
“Because I—I—I already have a boyfriend!”
“A-ha!” said Yuka triumphantly, her eyes flashing maliciously. “I knew things weren’t over with that low-down piece of—”
“It’s not Inuyasha!”
“Pfft. You honestly expect us to believe that?” said Eri incredulously. “Give me a break! We’re not stupid.”
“But it’s true,” Kagome lied.
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.”
“No. It’s. Not.”
“Yes it is! I’m not lying!”
“You are totally lying, Kagome Higurashi!”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
“Then what’s his name?”
“Uh…” Kagome’s mouth opened and shut several times, but no sound came out. Why couldn’t she just think of a name? Why?! Her friends gave her mockingly expectant looks. “Er… Uh…” she sputtered. “Well… that is… um… Na… ruto?”
Silence.
Kagome resisted the urge to slap her hand to her head. Crap.
“Naruto?” Yuka shrieked, the first to recover from her shock. Kagome flinched at the shrill sound. The last few people in the café who hadn’t been staring at them from the beginning turned to shoot them annoyed looks. “You’re saying that you broke up with Inuyasha and are now going out with someone whose name is Naruto?!”
“Yes, I am!”
Yuka snorted. Eri covered her hand with her mouth to hide a giggle. Ayumi laid a hand on top of Kagome’s as the other two girls broke down into fits of laughter. She spoke loudly over the noise they were making. “Now, Kagome-chan,” she said. “There’s really no need to hide the truth from us. We only want what’s best for our friend. You don’t need to lie… Honestly,” she continued, shaking her head, “You’re such an awful liar.”
Kagome’s face flamed. “I am not lying!” she hissed.
“Haha! Naruto—Naruto! As in, Naruto Naruto!” Yuka howled.
“Hahaha! Kagome’s so bad at lying,” giggled Eri. “I wonder what she’d tell her mom if she came home after curfew because she was out drinking or something. ‘I was… uh… at the zoo?’”
“Hehehe! ‘Oh sorry, mother dearest,’” Yuka said sweetly, clasping her hands together as if she was praying. “’The monkeys started throwing poop everywhere and I had to go to a public bathhouse to get it off… Why no, mother, that’s not vodka. That’s my shampoo.’”
Kagome’s cheeks flushed scarlet as they once again broke down into laughter. “That’s not true! I really do have a boyfriend named, erm, Naruto.”
“Bwahahahahaha! Oh, do you?” said Eri.
“Yes, I do!”
“And do you have proof of this?” asked Ayumi.
Yuka giggled. “Yeah, I’d love to see a picture of a guy named Naruto. No doubt he’s some sort of cosplay freak or something.”
“Hehe—Just like Inuyasha!” said Eri, wiping tears from her eyes. “Kagome-chan, your taste is really weird.”
“My taste is not weird!” she insisted.
“Oh, then you have a picture or something?” said Ayumi.
“Uh, well, yes, but it’s on my camera at home so I’ll show you later!” said Kagome.
“Really?”
“Really?!”
“Really!” affirmed the determined miko.
“Oh, goody,” Eri said through her laughter. “I can’t wait to see.”
-oOo-
The moment Kagome reached the shrine steps, her friends in tow, she took off, sprinting to the top at warp speed. She had lived with these steps her whole life, so the haul was no problem for her, but for Yuka, Eri, and Ayumi, it was another story.
“Kagome-chan!”
“Kagome-chan, wait up!”
“Geez, I guess we all know how you broke your hip, Kagome-chan!”
Ignoring them, she dashed into her house, threw her backpack onto a chair in the kitchen, and snatched her camera off the counter. Before the others could reach the top of the steps and see where she was going, she slammed open the door and darted across the shrine grounds to the well house. With a last glance over her shoulder to make sure they hadn’t caught up yet (they hadn’t), she threw open the door, flew down the steps, and dove down the well.
Yuka was the first to reach the top of the stairs. When she caught sight of Kagome’s front door, which was still swinging on its hinges, her eyes narrowed. She cast a look down the steps at Ayumi, who was probably halfway there, and Eri, who was even more pathetically out of shape, gasping for breath at the 25-steps point, and called out over her shoulder. “I’ll be inside!” The two girls on the steps nodded breathlessly and she turned away, heading for the door.
“Kagome-chaaaaaaan,” she called once she was inside. “Kagome-chan?” When she noticed the haphazard way her backpack was slung over the chair, she knew with certainty that it was just as she had suspected: Kagome Higurashi had fled the scene.
-oOo-
“Wait—you mean—Miroku-sama’s—not—here?” Kagome managed through gasps. As soon as she’d emerged on the other side of the well she’d run all the way to the village, and she was seriously out of breath. Sure, she spent most of her free time running around in the Sengoku Jidai, but she was still human!
Kaede shook her head, eyeing her worriedly. “He and Inuyasha went with the village men to trade with a neighboring village. They’ll be back in a few days… Are you alright, Kagome-chan?” she inquired, catching sight of the look she was giving her.
“What?!” she said, her voice a bit high-pitched. “You mean there’s no men in the village whatsoever? For a few days?!”
“That is correct.”
She grabbed her hair and tried very hard not to pull it all out. “Curse my stupid luck! This is so retarded! I can’t believe the one time I’m actually in need of a man there are none available! Ahhhhh!”
“Kagome-chan, calm down!” said Kaede, starting to look almost scared.
“I won’t calm down! You expect me to calm down?! I’ve put up with those bitches’ crap about pulling the plug on my ‘rude, obnoxious, jealous, annoying, rough asshole of a boyfriend’ for too long and I finally found a way out and it turned out to be a dead end and you’re telling me to calm down?!”
“Kagome-chan, please, just stop yelling! I’m sure we can find a way to fix—”
“Fix? Fix what?! Ugh! They’re going to kill me when I come back without a picture! Gyaaaahh!” Finding jerking her hair to be losing its luster, she moved on to smacking her arm repeatedly. “Stupid, stupid, stupid luck! I’m cursed—cursed! Kami hates me! The world hates me! Now I’m gonna have to listen to hours of their nagging until I’m finally forced to go on a date with that boring, plain Hojo-kun—”
“Kagome-chan, please listen to—”
“—whose only goal in life is to shower me with health-related presents which, you know, if I actually was some sort of illness waiting to happen, would be really nice and all, but kami he’s so boring and normal—”
“Listen to me, Kagome-chan; this is getting out of hand—”
“—and I wouldn’t date him if my life depended on it! But maybe that’s just because I happen to spend the majority of my time five hundred years ago, where every other male is some sort of inhuman supermodel!” She paused. Kaede blanched internally, knowing what was coming next. “And yet I still can’t find a single one to take a few pictures with me so I can convince my friends that I have a boyfriend named Naruto!” she screamed with renewed vigor. “Ugh!”
“Calm yourself, Kagome-chan!”
“This is it! This. Is. The end,” she moaned. “There’re never going to believe me—never! I’m going to have to go on a date with Hojo-kun, and then be bored out of my mind the entire time… Although maybe I can get him to let us go to a horror film and then freak him out so bad he never wants to go out with me again…? Ah, no good, I’m scared of horror films.” She shook her head in defeat, her shoulders slouching as she turned away. “Might as well get this over with. Thanks for the advice, Kaede-baachan.”
Kaede blinked, but quickly recovered. “It was my pleasure, Kagome-chan. Good luck.”
“I’ll need it.”
-oOo-
Kagome stared at the well. It didn’t budge. She continued to stare. It still wasn’t going anywhere. Stubborn piece of wood.
Come on, Kagome, buck up! This was bound to happen eventually. They knew you were lying anyway. She groaned, sitting down on the lip of the well and swinging her legs back and forth over the edge. Maybe if I just wait long enough they’ll go home.
…Yeah, not likely.
She exhaled slowly, taking in her surroundings. No matter how many times she passed through the well, the natural wonderland never got boring for her. She was from Tokyo, after all. They didn’t exactly have nature there, except for the parks and stuff, but that just wasn’t the same. It was currently late autumn, the trees burning a fiery red and covering the ground in a blanket of soft leaves. Kagome inhaled deeply, loving the scent of the damp leaves on the forest floor, her eyes closing in contentment. I’m not stalling, I’m not stalling, I am totally not stalling.
Her eyes flew open with a gasp as her miko powers suddenly flared up in the presence of a strong youki. She glanced around, worried at the familiarity of that youki. She didn’t know many youkai who were so powerful, and those she did, well, they weren’t on the best of terms.
She took a deep breath to calm herself and expanded her senses, wondering who was so close to the village. She couldn’t very well allow such a strong youkai to go on some sort of rampage this close to Kaede’s village, especially when they were without defenses! Of course, they did have Sango, Shippou, and Kaede, but that wouldn’t be enough to fight off this guy; Kagome was sure of it.
When she felt her miko powers come in contact with the youki her brows shot up. Sesshoumaru? What’s he doing here? She doubted she had anything to worry about from him, seeing as Inuyasha was nowhere around and that was pretty much his only incentive to attack them, but she was still curious.
Oh, who am I kidding? I just don’t want to go home without a picture of some guy… Her eyes widened as it hit her. She needed a picture of a guy. Said guy’s name was supposedly Naruto. Any guy whose name was Naruto was bound to be a cosplay freak. Enter Sesshoumaru: decked out in Sengoku Jidai armor, in possession of two very “authentic” swords, whose face was covered in cool anime-esque markings.
More importantly, he was super-hot.
Kagome grinned, her eyes sparkling wickedly. He’s perfect. Sure, she might have to sell her soul or something to get him to cooperate without cutting her head off, but it was a small price to pay to get those girls off her back. She smirked. And I know exactly how to get him here.
She stood up and cleared her throat a few times, singing a few notes several octaves lower than she was used to. Here goes. Think Inuyasha, think Inuyasha, think Inuyasha.
“SESSHOUMARUUUU! DON’T TRY TO HIDE, YA LAZY BASTARD!!!!!!!!” she bellowed in her best imitation of the hanyou. When she had exhausted her lungs, she paused, once again letting her miko powers stretch out. Satisfaction filled her when she noticed the taiyoukai’s aura pause slightly and turn towards the well. At the speed he was going, he’d be here in less than a minute.
She applauded her genius internally. It took some serious smarts to get Sesshoumaru to come after you when you actually wanted him to.
Kagome froze. Sesshoumaru. Coming after her.
She’d just called him a lazy bastard.
Why do I never think things through? I’m not going to have time to sell my soul if I’m freaking dead! He wasn’t far off now, but maybe she could still make a quick escape down the well. Yup. That’s what I’ll do. She whirled, scampered up onto the lip of the well and jumped…
…and suddenly found herself pressed against a tree somewhere on the other side of the clearing, staring into the most terrifying pair of eyes she’d seen to date.
She immediately groveled.
“Oh, please, don’t kill me, Sesshoumaru-sama, Lord of the West, King of Japan, Deserving Dictator and Supreme Ruler of the Universe! Thou who art the embodiment of power and awesomeness and, uh, art probably really great in—”
“Quiet, wench,” he growled.
She yelped as he pressed his hand to her throat. “Ack—no! I don’t wanna die!”
“Silence.”
“Just give me thirty seconds and I can explain myself!” she said. “I didn’t really mean that you’re a lazy bastard, I swear. It was just a joke!”
His eyes narrowed. “A joke?”
“Well, erm, more like a plot,” she amended. When she saw him raise a poison-covered hand, her eyes turned to saucers. “No! Stop! Please, I—Wait, you have both arms now?”
He bared his fangs at her. “That is irrelevant.”
So much for the distraction plan. “Oh, heheh. Is it?” she said nervously.
“Hn. You are an annoyance to this Sesshoumaru. Die.”
“Eek! Don’t! Don’t kill me! I’m—uh—I’m from the future!” she shrieked, shutting her eyes in the face of her imminent demise…
After a moment’s lack of dying, she opened one eye. Sesshoumaru was looking at her with something akin to sarcastic disbelief—probably the most emotion she’d ever seen him show. “You’re from the future,” he stated blandly.
She nodded vigorously. “Yeah! Five hundred years, actually… Wait! Don’t!” she said frantically when she saw him raise his hand again. “I promise I’m not lying—I promise! I can prove it!”
He arched a brow slightly. “You can.”
“Yes, I can!” She held up her hand, brandishing the camera strapped around her wrist triumphantly. “Observe,” she said, “my camera.”
He glared suspiciously at the dangling device. “A minor youkai?”
“No, comrade,” she said. “A camera. An instant painting-maker. With just a click of a button, the moment is frozen in time to be copied onto paper at a later date.”
The taiyoukai stared at the camera for several long moments. It didn’t budge. He continued to stare. The camera wasn’t going anywhere.
Slowly, he stepped away from Kagome and gave her a dangerous look. “Demonstrate,” he commanded.
Rubbing her neck gently and hoping it wouldn’t bruise, she nodded. Just hope you’re photogenic, Sesshoumaru. She held up the camera and directed it at the taiyoukai who, although he most likely had no idea what was going on, somehow managed not to look confused. Perfect.
Click.
Sesshoumaru growled at her. She turned around the camera and held it up for him to see. “That’s you,” she said.
“In the minor youkai.”
“Erm, no. In the camera.”
“This functions by imprinting this Sesshoumaru’s youki on the surface of the minor youkai?” he asked, completely ignoring her.
“I already told you, it’s not a minor youkai,” she said. “It’s a camera. Manmade. Youki has nothing to do with it.” When his eyes narrowed at her, she sighed and held up the camera facing herself, smiling.
Click.
Sesshoumaru growled again, and she gave him a funny look, but he didn’t offer any other information. Maybe the clicking hurts his eardrums or something. She held up the camera for him. “See? You see there? I don’t have youki, and it still works.”
“Hn,” he said in a tone that made her think that he most certainly didn’t see.
She rolled her eyes. “Like it or not, a human made this. A robot that a human made, actually. We’re smarter than you think,” she said smugly. Before he could say anything else, she darted in front of him, held up the camera, and put on her best “I’m totally in love” smile.
Click.
Growl. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she got any words in he snatched the camera out of her hands. “Hey! What are you—?”
“Speak, minor youkai,” he ordered the camera.
Kagome almost slapped her forehead. “It’s not a minor youkai! It’s a machine. From the future.” He continued to glare daggers at the camera, totally ignoring her. She really hoped looks couldn’t kill, because if that was true her camera would soon be taking a trip to the graveyard. Her inner cogs whirled as she tried to think of a solution to her latest predicament. Oo! I know… “Erm, Sesshoumaru?” she tried. Nothing. “If you still don’t believe me I can show you how I get there.”
He looked at her, and she took this as encouragement. “But, it just so happens that the portal doesn’t work without a special object.” She held out her hand. “My camera, please?” Not technically a lie. I never said the camera was the object. She schooled her expression into a serious face as he frowned and handed over the camera.
“Thank you.” I have the camera! I. Have. Got. The. Camera! She held in a squeal of triumph and forced herself to walk normally (and not break into her happy dance, which would really be quite embarrassing) as she headed towards the well. Score one for Kagome! No, scratch that. Score a million for Kagome! Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh…
When she reached the well, she climbed onto the rim.
“Return immediately with more proof,” he instructed her.
Crap. Didn’t see that one coming. She turned slowly to look at him. “Uh, well, the time for the portal to work may vary,” she said. Not a lie; it really might—by a few microseconds or so, that is. “I’ll be back.” Without giving him time to protest, she turned and jumped into the well.
As the familiar blue light surrounded her, she couldn’t help but think that this was only the beginning.
-oOo-
Disclaimer: Inuyasha et al is property of Rumiko Takahashi. (Please insert applause here.) However, I do own this story, and if you steal it, I will get really pissed off at you. As a side note, inspiration for this story comes from Sunset Miko’s Weekly Challenges (2014). I have decided that I like the idea of writing each chapter around a specific idea, and therefore will do so. The names of the chapters, you’ll notice, come from there. This means that chapters may vary greatly in length.
Note: I spell Hojo’s name here as such because I like it better than the phonetic spelling. It should actually be Houjou (see the Inuyasha Wiki for evidence), but I thought it looked stupid like that.
Thanks for reading!